GP2 Series is back into action. Yesterday qualifying saw Marcus Erricson from DAMS clinching pole position with 1:40.716. Sam Bird will accompany him in front row, 0.371s slower than the pole time. The championship leader Colleti was qualified in 4th, behind his closest rival in the standings, Felipe Nasr. Richelmi, Leimer, Haryanto, Evans, Dillmann, and Calado completed the top ten. Robin Frijns only manage to salvage 16th, while Johnny Cecotto and Alexander Rossi were further back, 18 and 19 respectively.
Here’s full result of yesterday qualy: http://www.gp2series.com/Results/?seasonid=169&raceid=930

Ericsson had tussle with Nasr before Wellington straight, resulting in penalty. Nasr retired later in the race. Bird stormed from fourth to first with that chaos, with Coletti behind. Both of them choosed to pit earlier than most of the grid.

That enabled Mitch Evans to led the race for some stage, while Bird and Coletti got stuck behind the late-stoppers, notably Cecotto Jr. Having built enormous gap, Evans pitted and entered the track 2nd. But problem with his limiter resulted in 10 seconds stop/go penalty. Richelmi was charging behind Coletti and passed him beautifully at Club.

Coletti began to struggle with tyres and attacked by Dillmann. Dillmann passed through but Colleti ran wide. Leimer sneaked in and both of them collided, making Coletti retired with only a lap to go. Leimer retained his position, but carrying 10 place grid penaly for Sprint Race. Alex Rossi also got same penalty after contact with Kevin Ceccon, but still keep a point he got from Feature Race.

Lancaster escaped penalty despite being investigated by steward for causing a collision with James Calado.

The worst part is the predictability of that accident: gong through the loop, a collision was inevitable. The collision in Spain should have been punished with a race ban – since that didn’t happen, things like this keep happening. And awarding 10-second stop/go penalties when he’s already in last place won’t change that either. Awful stewarding, awful driving. Will post a video of the incident as soon as I find one.

Apart from that incident, another amazing GP2 race. Fantastic fights throughout the field, sat on the edge of my seat the entire race.

Watching the replay, Palmer was the one at fault. He has a minor lock-up going into Brooklands, but it’s enough to leave him with a handful of understeer and Canamasas marooned on the outside. If he hit Palmer, it’s probably because he was expecting Palmer to turn in when he did not. It’s completely unfair for Palmer to blame Canamasas for the accident, and the fine is a well-deserved punishment.

@prisoner-monkeys Everything you say would be absolutely correct IF Palmer and Canamasas had been racing for position. However, as Palmer was a full lap ahead, we shouldn’t even be talking about there being a collision between them because Canamasas should have jumped out the way when he saw Palmer coming (and I don’t buy the idea that he didn’t). In the circumstances, a stop-go for Canamasas is the very minimum punishment that should have been handed out.

I’m wondering how long it is before the GP2 stewards lose total control of the series. The drivers are doing mad/outrageous/thick things because they know they’ll probably get away with it. If the stewards had had the guts to give Cecotto a race ban in Malaysia and another in Spain they would probably have put a stop to the dreadful driving we’ve seen this season. Even when he was banned at Monaco it was for an incident which was careless more than reckless. Yes the racing has been good, but GP2 is not doing itself any favours credibility wise.